Pork accounts for nearly two-thirds of China’s meat consumption and with African swine fever decimating Chinese production, Canada’s pork sector had hoped to see its exports to China jump rather than be banned. Pictured here are pork vendors at a market in Yunnan province in May.

Livestock sector suspicious of China ban but hopeful

Politics, not fraud, may be behind latest Chinese ban of our exports but officials hopeful it can be resolved

Reading Time: 4 minutes Some sort of fraud or more payback from China? That’s the question facing Canadian pork and beef producers after Beijing banned their products last month. As was the case with canola seed, the official Chinese explanation is that it halted imports because of contamination issues — “pests” in canola and the growth promotant ractopamine in […] Read more


Photo: iStock/File

U.S. livestock: Futures rally on choppy grains, hopes for Chinese buying spree

Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live hog futures rallied on Tuesday, as competition among packers for spot delivery grew and animal weights slipped after the recent U.S. heat wave, traders said. Live cattle futures also inched up, supported in part by choppy trading in U.S. grain futures and growing questions of whether […] Read more



Order buyers have been very busy fielding calls for available cattle.  Photo: Thinkstock

Klassen: Yearling prices surge

Compared to last week, Western Canadian yearling prices were $3 to as much as $10 higher while calves traded $2 to $5 above week-ago levels.  Most auction barns remain in holiday mode; however, order buyers were extremely busy fielding calls for available cattle. This caused the yearling market in Western Canada to divorce from the […] Read more

Live cattle futures were lifted by expectations of herd expansion slowing.  Photo: File

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures rally on corn futures slump

Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) feeder cattle futures inched upward on Monday, as corn futures fell sharply and traders hoped that feed costs will continue to remain under pressure. Meanwhile, lean hog futures faced choppy trading on Monday as the market wrestles with continued expectations for – but no clear signs yet […] Read more


Photo: File

Livestock producers receive tax relief for 2019

Drought in Western Canada and Quebec has prompted the federal government to release an initial list of regions eligible for livestock tax deferrals. The livestock tax deferral provision allows livestock producers in prescribed drought, flood or excess moisture regions to defer a portion of their 2019 sale proceeds of breeding livestock until 2020 to help […] Read more

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau addresses the Dairy Farmers of Canada AGM in Saskatoon. (Photo courtesy AAFC)

Supply-managed sector compensation details due before election

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has pledged to lay out details on trade pact compensation for supply-managed sectors before the federal election in October. The pledge comes as the federal Liberals face pressure from supply-managed sectors and the federal opposition Conservatives to deliver on compensation for access granted to the Canadian market under Canada’s free […] Read more



China can’t ban hope — pork sector is eyeing a great year

China can’t ban hope — pork sector is eyeing a great year

The supply-and-demand calculus is clear: Demand is high, supply is low, and those selling pork will find buyers

Reading Time: 3 minutes International pork markets are in disarray, but the prospects are good for pork producers here — even after Beijing’s new ban on Canadian pork exports. China had been a hot market for Canadian pork this year, with its purchases jumping by more than half in the first four months and moving the nation ahead of […] Read more